I’m travelling around the coastline of the UK this August. After visiting all the States of America and every Prefecture of Japan, it is now time to travel the entire coastline of the United Kingdom. It is also a great excuse to visit events and festivals in villages, towns and cities on our trip.

Working as a project manager for the International Centre for Crowd Management & Security Studies I have seen some 'interesting' approaches to health and safety regulations at events and festivals.

From incomplete front of stage barriers to overflowing toilets and anything in between. In the early 2000s I was involved in rewriting the licensing for a large festival after an incoherent event management plan (and consequent acting on it) lead to audience members being hospitalised. As an event planner you need to avoid these kind of mistakes. After all, we are talking about the health, safety and well-being of your audience.

But what do you do when you have to organise an event in a country where violent attacks happen. Meredith Pallante wrote an interesting article about how she organised the security for an event held in Israel. You can read the article here.

Glasgow Oktoberfest has been cancelled as the organisation didn't get a licence. The festival was said to take place on the 19th of October but due to an argument over the correct licences it has had to cancel the event.

There were concerns over safety issues, according to Glasgow Licensing Board. On the website of Glasgow Oktoberfest it says that they will be back next year. To be continued...

Do check that the products you allow on site comply with your vendor policy. I’ve been at one event where one vendor was temporarily shut down because they used plastic utensils. How do you deal with this? And what are the consequences for you and the vendor? Again, this requires planning.

The titanic tech of today impacts upon every conceivable professional sector, and the events industry is no exception. Embracing the diverse range of event technology available to event professionals is essential; not only to deliver the highest quality events you can, but to avoid falling behind your competition. I can guarantee that the majority of them will be harnessing the full potential of event tech!

Your audience wants you to organize a green event. Having said that though you need to make sure you have everything in place to actually make it happen. Claiming that you are ‘green’ is not enough. Event planners need to make it clear to their fans what they are doing!

What do you need to do to make your event or festival more sustainable? More and more event planners want to implement sustainable policies and make their event greener but don’t know where to start. Event planning involves sustainable event management.

The last two months have been a whirlwind. I wrote my last blog on June 21st about conducting research at Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee. The day after I wrote it the movers came in to pack everything from my San Francisco apartment, load it on a truck, onto a boat, and 8 weeks later onto a truck again to be brought to my new apartment in good old England.

Last Saturday the Dutch community in San Francisco (USA) celebrated their national holiday, Kingsday. The Dutch celebrate the birthday of King Willem Alexander with parties and events. A small family festival was organised in Golden Gate Park. Dutch food, Dutch music, Heineken and a lot of Dutch people...

Green Mary and Sol Solutions were contracted to make the event more sustainable. Orange goes green so to speak. Sol Solutions is the provider of portable solar power generators and at Dutch Kingsday they powered the DJ-stage. I've interviewed Sephyr Peling from Sol Solutions and asked him how it all works.

For more information about sustainable event management or workshops in greening your event visit www.eventtutor.com.